More Troops Head to Iraq as Obama Declares Mission Accomplished

It was about a week ago the corporate media, with much sickening fanfare, announced the “official” end to the occupation of Iraq.

‘The last American combat troops left Iraq today, seven-and-a-half years after the US-led invasion, and two weeks ahead of President Barack Obama’s 31 August deadline for withdrawal from the country,” the Guardian reported on August 19.

“U.S. military officials are hustling to reduce the number of troops in Iraq to 50,000 to meet President Obama’s Aug. 31 deadline for an end to U.S. combat operations,” reported Fox News the same day.

NBC went so far on August 18 as to air what Brian Williams called an “official Pentagon announcement” — such candor is hardly surprising, considering NBC (formerly owned by death merchant General Electric) has unofficially read from Pentagon scripts for years — and showed images of “the last combat brigade in Iraq” (as the New York Times deemed it) hustling toward the Kuwait border, “symbolizing an end to fighting in the country.”

The supposed exit, of course, was all for show.

The Boston Globe added a caveat to the propaganda effort, maybe to confuse the American people, who are seriously weary of the occupation, especially as millions of them can no longer rationalize spending billions on it now that the economy is crumbling. “Given the human and material toll of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, the United States has an obligation to continue helping Iraqis,” states a Globe editorial.

In other words, the troops ain’t going anywhere.

“After this month, 50,000 American troops will remain in Iraq to train the country’s security forces, protect Americans and US facilities, and conduct counter-terrorist operations — until they, too, are withdrawn a year from now,” added the Globe.